"Future is Now!" Libraries + Museums Online Conference

January 26, 2010

For Immediate Release

Everyone is invited to participate in* The Future is Now: Libraries and Museums in Virtual Worlds*, an online conference to be held on Friday and Saturday, March 5-6, 2010 in OPAL, the webconferencing collaborative service, in Second Life, and in other three-dimensional virtual worlds.

Throughout this two-day conference there will be dozens of presentations, panel discussions, poster sessions, demonstrations, tours, and social events. You need not be proficient in virtual worlds to participate in this conference. Orientation sessions will be held prior to the conference dates.

*Keynote Speakers*:

*Marilyn Johnson*, author of the new book, *This Book is Overdue!
How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All*. She also wrote *The Dead
Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries*.

*Tom Atkinson* teaches Instructional Technology at the U. of
Central Florida and has over 30 years of experience in designing, producing, delivering, and evaluating interactive instruction on mobile learning platforms and in virtual worlds

*Sharon Tettegah and Cynthia Colongne*, co-authors of the 2009
book, *Identity, Learning and Support in Virtual Environments.** *

*Conference Website*: http://bit.ly/7L8M1j

*Registration Fees:*

- $25 for individuals who are members of the American Library Association
(ALA).
- $45 for individuals who are not members of ALA.
- $10 for individuals who are students, retired, or between jobs.
- $75 for Groups (A group is defined as two or more individuals who are
currently directly affiliated with an organization. Participating members of
the registering organization need not be in the same location in the real
world when they attend conference events.)**

*Register Now*: http://bit.ly/7cB88t

*Twitter Hashtag*: #FIN10

*Poster Session Proposals*: Although the deadline for submitting program proposals has passed, the deadline for poster session proposals is Monday, March 1, 2010. See the conference website for details.

*Sponsor: LearningTimes (*http://www.learningtimes.org/), an open community of education and training professionals.* *

*Conference Co-Organizers*: ALA VCL MIG (Virtual Communities & Libraries, Member Initiative Group), ACRL Virtual Worlds Interest Group, the Alliance Library System, and TAP Information Services.

*Conference Archive*: We plan to record and archive as many events as possible. Only paid registrants, presenters, and members of the conference planning team will have access to the conference archive for 3 months after the conclusion of the conference. On June 6, 2010 the conference archive will be made available to everyone.

*More Information*: Please contact Tom Peters (816.616.6746;
tpeters@tapinformation.com)

--
Lori Bell
Director of Innovation
Alliance Library System
600 High Point Lane
East Peoria, IL 61611
(309)694-9200 ext. 2128
skype: lbell927
lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com
lbell927@gmail.com
"Virtual Worlds, Real Libraries"
http://books.infotoday.com/books/VirtualWorlds.shtml

UK Govt: School Libraries Not Statutory

This is sad... Posted to the InfoLit listserv:

Van: Information literacy and information skills teaching discussion list namens Mark Hepworth
Verzonden: ma 25-1-2010 7:53
Aan: LIS-INFOLITERACY@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Onderwerp: UK government response to petition to make school libraries statutory

Hi,

Copied below is the UK Prime Minister’s office response to the petition to make school libraries statutory.

To me this implies that the school library is just a repository for books and ICT kit. It indicates a complete lack of understanding of the potential role of the library and the library/information profession in terms of developing the information literacy of students and incorporating information literacy into the curriculum. It echoes a vision of the school library that is grounded in the 1960s and is not in step with developments in other parts of the world, such as, Australasia and North America. Also a contrast, I think, to what is happening in Scotland.

I wonder why this 50+ year old conception continues to persist?

Read the Government’s response
School libraries are a key resource for pupils and teachers. They support the National Curriculum by providing books and ICT equipment, and at their best they are a valuable asset to teachers and a source of enjoyment and learning for children and young people.
However, the provision of a school library is not a statutory requirement, and there are no current plans to alter this and change the legislation.
It is the Government’s policy to put as much money as possible directly into schools’ budgets, allowing schools to target resources appropriately and to make their own choices about their school library provision and book resourcing.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page22227
Apologies for a gloomy start to a Monday morning!
Mark

STEMmED Project

Posted to the Second Life Librarians Google Group, an announcement regarding a science, technology, and engineering information literacy site in the 3D virtual world of Second Life:


"The STEMmEd Project was created by The Department of Natural Sciences at The University of the Sacret Heart (Universidad del Sagrado CorazÓn) to encourage natural sciences studies that will enable students to actively engage in the knowledge-economy. Providing learning experiences with this purpose, the initiative concentrates in educational technologies and Web 2.0 tools. You are welcome to visit the island and its library.

STEMmED Librarian = PI Illios"

"Let the Games Begin!"-Call for submissions

Posted to the ILI list:

"Have you discovered or developed imaginative games that motivate and
engage learners in information literacy sessions? If so, we are
writing to invite you to contribute your ideas to "Let the Games
Begin! Engaging Students with Interactive Information Literacy
Instruction" (Neal-Schuman, August 2010), an edited book of games for
use in information literacy instruction sessions for undergraduate and
graduate college and university students.

For more information on submissions see attached document.

We would love to hear from you,

Theresa McDevitt and Kelly Heider
Indiana of University of Pennsylvania
Libraries"

1/29 Deadline: Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship

From Zoe Borovsky (UCLA):

The program offers training within different interdisciplinary fields of study under the leadership of pairs of tenured senior faculty, who define the fields and serve as research directors for groups of 12 graduate students. The students participate in two workshops: one in the spring, to prepare students to undertake summer research that will inform the design of their dissertation research; the other in the fall, to help students apply their summer research experiences to writing dissertation and funding proposals. Students may apply for up to $5,000 to cover summer research costs. Working together, research directors and graduate students design research that will help to shape evolving fields in the humanities and social science.

http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships/dpdf-fellowship/

One of the topics is "Virtual Worlds"
http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships/subcompetitions/dpdf-fellowship/9E56E847-B2D3-DE11-9D32-001CC477EC70/82289716-B5D3-DE11-9D32-001CC477EC70/

Google Search Limits & New Displays

Google offers some new search limits and various means of displaying search results. After doing a Google search, click on "Show options" under the search box. The left column includes optional display features, including "Wonder Wheel" and "Timeline," as well as various means of limiting by date, type of item, etc.

Panelist Opportunity: Museum/Library Collaboration

The American Library Association's Virtual Communities and Libraries Member Interest Group will hold an online conference on the ALA island in Second Life (SL March 5th through 6th, 2010. Panelists are needed for a session that will focus on museum and library collaboration, or potential collaboration, in virtual worlds, with some panelists from museums and others from libraries. If you are interested in participating in a 60-90-minute panel session on this topic (about 4-5 panelists with about 10-15 minutes per panelist), please email Esther Grassian estherg@library.ucla.edu, and include a few notes about what you would cover. There would be no travel expenses involved, since the conference will take place entirely in SL. Please respond for yourself or to recommend others (including museum staff) by Monday, January 25th.

Postion: Senior Program Officer, Digital Library Federation

CLIR, the Council on Library and Information Resources, has posted a position opening for Digital Library Federation's (DLF) Senior Program Officer. Among its other important projects and activities, the CLIR/DLF Second Life (SL) island, Entropia, has been the site of a number of important programs, held in real life and in SL, including nine Mellon Seminars in Digital Humanities during 2008/2009, and a Sloan Consortium presentation on teaching a UCLA undergraduate course using SL.